Juyuan Pavilion's Trade Fair (Part Two)

Although Chu Chen had put it tactfully, his meaning was already clear. Lu Changshun chuckled and said nothing more about it, merely asking, "Little Chu, you'll be going to this public auction, right?"

Chu Chen smiled and nodded. "Yes. I'm planning to leave on the eighteenth."

Hearing that, Lu Changshun laughed heartily. "What a coincidence! I'm planning to leave on the eighteenth too. How about we go together then?"

"Sure. Let's get in touch when we book the plane tickets!" Chu Chen agreed at once.

"Good! We'll contact each other then."

Lu Changshun nodded, then slapped his forehead. "Right, I almost forgot to tell you something. This afternoon, I'm holding a small raw-material auction on the second floor of Xiangyun Pavilion. If you're interested, you can come take part."

Chu Chen found that rather strange. In all the trade fairs Juyuan Pavilion had held over the past few years, he had never encountered anything like this. He asked, "Shopkeeper Lu, why is there an auction this year?"

"It's all because of the rising price of raw materials."

Lu Changshun shook his head and sighed. "You know what happened at last year's Pingzhou public auction. The price of raw materials went completely crazy. Given the current market, they're bound to keep rising, so I wanted to use this public auction to stock up on more goods. But that left me short on working capital, so I had no choice but to sell some of the goods I'd stored up before."

Hearing the reason, Chu Chen smiled. "Shopkeeper Lu, looks like you're really going all in. In that case, I'll have to come support you this afternoon."

Lu Changshun thanked him first, then said, "To be honest, if I weren't in urgent need of money this time, I wouldn't be willing to